SUMMER TOP-DRESSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 4, 6 January 1931, Page 13

SUMMER TOP-DRESSING.

BIG INCREASE EACH SEASON.

USEFUL ON -HILL COUNTRY.

(Specially Written by "Super.") The idea that top-dressing should ho confined to certain spring and autumn months is steadily going by the board, and each season sees an increasing amount of top-dressing during the months of November, December. . and January. Treatment of the pastures at this time, whether it be bill or ilat country that is being handled, seems likely to be a very profitable practice,! and is now being encouraged by our leading grassland authorities in the Dominion. Experimental work by the Fields Division has shown that there is a great J advantage in giving the autumn application earlier than has been general, for this allows the pastures to go into the winter in good heart, and still gives some action the following spring. That the trend is definitely to summer top-dressing is shown- by the latest advice given by the Department, which says, inter alia, that: "Frequently some of the grassland may with advantage be dressed with superphosphate in the early summer. Such a dressing not only will stimulate the production of fresh growth during the latter part of the season, but also will make its influence felt during the following season. If other pastures not top-dressed in the summer are topdressed in the autumn, the two lots of top-dressing will materially ease the problem of winter feeding. Summer topdressing as suggested is most effective in parts where a good deal of rain may be expected during December and January, and it declines in <*ffacfciv3ness as the December-January rainfall decreases. Grassland from which hay or ensilage has been saved usually responds profitably to a December dressing cf superphosphate, which favours a vigorous aftermath, yielding fresh feed at a period when it is apt to be in scant supply." On Hill Country. Th& advice tendered above is written primarily, of course, for the dairy farmer, for as yet only a modest quantity of ensilage has been mad© on sheep country. Frequent low prices will inevitably turn the attention of sheep farmers to ways and means of increasing carrying capacity, and they .will then find that ensilage making offers one of the best ways of accomplishing this. Admittedly there are many large stations on steep country where this becomes an absolute impossibility, but taking sheep farms in the aggregate j there must be several thousand which I offer j

Mr. A. H. Cockayne, -whose ideas carry weight with all progressive farmers, pointed out recently that many stations whose carrying capacity was two eheep to the acre could carry one or two more per acre if some provision were made for hand-feeding them during a short period of the winter. He estimated that ensilage would be needed for not more than twelve weeks, the fotal quantity required being 4cwt per eheep, so that each ton would make provision for five extra sheep. Thus a farmer who made a 150-ton stack of ensilage would have provision for wintering 750 additional sheep on the farm. No sheep farmer needs to be told that feeds gets away from him during certain periods of the year, and is thus in effect wasted. It is inevitable that this should be bo under ordinary conditions, for a pasture that will winter two sheep to the acre will obviously do more than that during the summer, and it is not always profitable to buy sheep during the spring and early summer, when the demand is keenest, and when prices often leave no margin for subsequent increased returns. Profitable for Lambs. Summer top-dressing can be worked Jn very well with the fattening of the lambs, and the writer knows of one sheepfarmer in the Wairarapa who has followed this practice for some years with highly profitable results. His idea is to topdress some of his paddocks in the early spring, and put the ewes and lambs in them. A good "first cut" is got away to the works before Christmas, and during November he uses some of the hoggets to eat down one or two paddocks very closely.. These paddocks are then top-dressed in early December with about 3cwt super per acre. The feed comes away ■ rapidly, and after the first draft of lambs has been got away, the ewes and lambs are returned to these freshly top-dressed paddocks. The result is that they go ahead by leaps and bounds, especially if there has been good rain after the fertiliser was applied, a thing which usually happens in that district in early December. Top-dressing of hill country by itself would allow for some increase in the carrying capacity, but the ideal system is the use of ensilage as well. Under this system the surplus grass of flush periods is available for any severe droughts—a very important provision in districts such as Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, subject to occasional periods of prolonged dry weather. Once there has been accumulated sufficient ensilage to more than cover winter needs, carrying capacity may be increased without any fear either of dry weather or bad winters. At first sight it might appear that summer top-dressing would not be as profitable as that carried out in spring or autumn, but the truth of the matter is that when a'highly soluble fertiliser such as superphosphate is used, the smallest quantity of rain will make some if it at once available to the pasture. This in effect means that as long as there is any rain whatever the fertiliser will have the desired effect, and it is seldom indeed that either November or December prove rainless months in any district. January is certainly drier in some districts, but even in January there is ample rain in many places, making the use of fertilisers feasible. Increased production on sheep country demands more efficient pasture, management, and that in turn necessi- j tates the use of fertilisers and the making of ensilage. A period of low prices is a time when farmers search every avenue by means of which returns may bp increased, and it' is obvious that a 30 to 50 per cent increase in carrying capacity would go a long way towards saving the present situation. The j writer does not for one moment sug-

gest that such an increase can be made general,, but there are some farms where even larger increases in production could be brought into effect provided ideas of this nature were carried out. Improved farming methods have come into vogue much more rapidly in dairying than in sheep farming, but our present unfortunate situation, due to low wool prices, etc., is certain to stimulate improved methods.